Musical accenting device.



J. 'P. KELLY.

MUSICAL AGUENTING DEVICE. APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 19, 1911.

Patented Feb. 10, 1914.

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MUSICAL AGOENTING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 19, 1911.

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Patented Feb. 10, 1914 UNITED STATES,

PATEN T OFFICE.

JOHN F. KELLY, OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

MUSICAL ACCENTING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 10, 1914.

Application filed June 19,1911. Serial No. 633,995.

. zen of the United States of America, residing at Pittsfield, in thecounty of Berkshire and State of Massachusetts, have invented new anduseful Improvements in Musical Accenting Devices, of which the followingis a specification. This invention relates to improvements in accent-ingdevices for use in connection with muscial instruments and particularlyto musical instruments which are operated by means of a movable music ornote sheet in which are formed openings or perforations representing thevarious notes or tones of the piece of music that is to be played.

The object of my present invention is to provide suitable devices forcausing the melody or other notes of a piece of music to be struck wit-ha greater force than the accompaniment notes of the piece. The actionwhich sounds the melody notes is not set in motion until a shortinterval of time after the action of the accompaniment notes is set inmotion. This interval of time between the setting of the action inmotion which sounds the accompaniment notes and the setting in motion ofthe action which sounds the melody notes is so short that theaccompaniment notes are not actually struck 01' sounded until at orabout the same instant that the melody notes are struck. The means whichoperates the melody action is operated by a current whose electromot-lveforce is greater than the electromotive force which operates the actionof the accompaniment notes. The melody action is operated by a strongercurrent and moves, of course, faster than the accompaniment action butis so timed as to catch up or overtake the move ments of theaccompaniment action and thus cause the two sets of notes to be soundedat practically the same instant, whereby the melody notes are properlyaccented. In order to accomplish this very much desired result in pianoplayers which are controlled bya note sheet, I have devised an apparatusto carry into effect these operations by means of which the melodyaction is moved faster than the accompaniment action, but on the otherhand is set in motion a short interval of time after the latter action.

In the drawings torming part of this application, Figure l is a generaldiagrammatic view. showing the arrangement of electrical connecthinswhich extend from the key-actuating magnets of the musical instrument tothe switches for closing the circuits to said-magnets which operate theaccompaniment and melody notes; also showing the accent switch devicefor controlling the circuit to an elec-tromagnet by means of said devicewhich is connected to the source of electrical energy at differentpotential points whereby different strengths of current may be cut intothe circuit for changing thequantity or volume of the tone view of amusic or note sheet illustrating the slots of the accompaniment andmelody notes and the accent slots for effecting the opening and "closingof'the circuit to the switch-operating electromagnet. v

Referring to the drawings in detail, a designates a battery orothersuitable source of electric energy; 6 an electromagnet, oneterminal of the batterybeing connected to one terminal of theelect-romagnet by means of the wires 0 and d,- e designates a wireleading from the other terminal of the electromagnet to thecircuit-closing device which is designed to be closed by means of themovable finger members 9, the points 9 of -which drop through the accentslots 14 carried into engagement with the contact bar thus closing thecircuit to the wire is which extends back to the other terminal of thebattery or other source of electrical energy. The armature m of theelect-romagnet is provided with a circular contact piece *0 which slideson the contact pieces 37, g, and r. The distance between the contactpieces 1 and -r is such that the cir'cuit is always closed during themovements of the circular contact piece 0.

m designates a bar, over which the note sheet it passes, that isprovided with recesses m therein to receive the points g when they passthrough the openings in the music or note sheet.

It will readily be seen that when the circular contact piece 0 passesfrom the contact that is impressed upon the circuits leading to the twosets of key-actuating magnets will be increased since the'wires s and tare connected to the battery at different potential points.

2-designates a switch lever that is connected to the wire 0 and engagesthe contact 3 and controls the current to the wire of the melody notes.Fig. 2 is a digrammatic in the note sheet 72., causing the wire 2 to beq to the contact 1 the voltageof the current and 7.

that play the accompaniment notes. 6 is a wire that leads to thekey-actuating mag nets 5 through the circuit closing devices 7 whichdrop into the accompaniment slots 8 in the sheet that designates thesenotes. 9 is a switch also connected to the wire a by means of thecontact point 10, its opposite end being connected to a wire 11 thatleads from the key-actuating magnets 12 which operate the keys of themelodynotes. The position of the switches 2' and 9 determines thecurrent strength in the magnets 5 and 12. The circuits to the magnets 12are closed by the switch points shown at 13, which cause the wires 11 toengage the bar j. The bar y',it will be observed,is a common contacttort-he three circuit closing devices f, 13 v It is also clear that theposition of the circular contact member 0 will determine the strength ofthe current in the magnets 5 and 12.

Referring now to Fig. 2, which illustrates the note sheet forcontrolling the operation of the accenting devices: llt will be observedthat the accent slots 14-, or the slots which close the circuit to theelectro-magnet b for changing the voltage of the current supplied to thekey-actuating magnets are out in the note sheets 71 on substantially thesame line as the beginning of the accompaniment notes 8, (although thisposition of the slots 14 is not absolutely necessary) which line isindicated by the numeral,15, and that the melody slots are cut back fromthe line 15 a short distance, as indicated at 16, producing a shortinterval of time between the setting in motion of the action whichsounds the accompaniment notes and the action which sounds the melodynotes, the first action being moved by the current from the lowerelcctromotive force and, the second action by the current from thehigher electrometive force. lit will therefore be seen that when thecircuit through the magnet b is closed by means of the accent slots 1%in the note sheet when the points 9 drop therethrough, that the circularcontact piece 0 moved from the contact 9 to the contact and when thepoints 17 of the switch elements 13 all into the melody slots 18 ahigher elcctromotivc force will be impressed upon, and a strongercurrent willtlow to, the key-actuatingmagnets 12 which sound the melodynotes; that is to say, the stronger electric currents will flow to themagnets 12 which operate the melody notes 18, such stronger current notcoming into action until after he accompaniment action has first beenset in motion (but has not yet sounded its notes). The action whichsounds the melody notes is started in motion alittle in than theaccompaniment notes, as shown by the space 16 on the note sheets. Eliemm recess? that they will both strike their respective note strings atsubstantially the same instant at which instant the melody actionimparts a stronger blow so as to properly accent the accompaniment notesof the measure.

Referring briefly to the operation of the accenting device, it Wlll b8observed that when the accenting slot 14 causes the point 51 to allowthe bar 2' to engage the contact bar j, that current will flow by meansof the wire .9 from the battery It to the wire is and return by means ofthe wire 6 through the electromagnet b to the other pole of the battery.This causes the armature m to be attracted and the circular contactpiece lifted so as to engage the contact r whereby the current of highervoltage will flow by means of the wire is to the common contact bar jand when the slot 18 of the note sheet. 3

permits the point 9 to drop the circuit will be closed from the bar j tothe melody striking magnets 12 and return by means of the wire 11 totheother pole of the battery. The current to the accompaniment notes whichare actuated by means oi the key actuating electro-magnets 5 is by meansof the wire 25 from one pole of the battery 0:, wire is to the commoncontact bar 7', circuit closing device 7 wire 6 to the kcy-actuatingmagnets 5 and the return wire 4 to the other pole of the battery a; itwill be seen from the diagram shown in Fig.1 and the arrangement of theslots in the note-sheet in Fig. 2 that the accenting slots 14 and theaccompaniment slots 8 cause the simultaneous energization of the switchmagnet Z) and. the key-actuating magnets 5 and that after the .bar 0 hasbeen-moved from the contact-piece g to the contact-piece '2' a currentof greater voltage will flow to the key-actuating magnets 5, and thenlater, as the note-sheet is moved, the melody-slot 18, which is cutslightly back of the slots 8 and 14, will effect the closing of thecircuit-closing device 13 and cause the melody-key actuating magnets 12to be actuated with greater force.

No claim is made on the note sheet itself as the arrangement of cuttingstherein is believed to be old in the prior art.

it is to be understood that by the term key-actuating I do not referspecifically to the operation of a musical instrument by means of a key,as it is clearly within the province of my invention to directly operatethe action of the instrument Without making use of the keys at all, andtheiiivention is not to be understood as being limited to the operationof the instrument by means of a ltcy.

What I claim is:-

1. An electrically-operated musical instrument, comprising, incombination, actuating magnets, connections therefrom to athe twoactions are such; source of electrical energy, an electricallyoperatedswitch-device, a plurality of conother branch connection toone of theactuating magnets, and another perforation in the note-sheet andpositioned back of the two first-mentioned perforations to close anotherbranchconnection to another one of the actuating magnets later in timethan the first-mentioned branch connections are closed, to cause thelatter actuating magnet to operate during the period the first-mentionedactuating magnets are operated, whereby the switch-device will close a.connection which'is connected to a higher potential point of the sourceof energy to,

cause the second-actuating magnet to operate with greater strength thanthe first-mentioned actuating magnet, and whereby the tone produced bythe action of the second actuating magnet will be louder than thatcaused by the action of the first actuating magnet.

2. An electrically-operated automatic pi- 'ano-player, comprising, incombination, a

source of electrical energy normally connected With'a low-potentialpoint thereof to an electro-magnetically-operated switch-device which isnormally closed, a connection from a high-potential point of the source'of electrical energy to a normally-open contact of said device,actuating devices, branch connections from the normally-closedswitch-device to independent electricallyoperated actuating devices, anote-sheet to control the cl0sure of said branch connections to theswitch device, the closure of the normally-open connection to the magnetof the switch-device to cause said device to effeet the closure of theconnection to the higher potential connection of the source ofelectrical energy, whereby a second actuating device maybe operated withgreater strength before thefirst actuating device has ceased to operate,and whereby an accent eiiect is produced, as described.

3; An electrically-operated automatic piano-player, comprising, incombination, a

source of electrical energy connected with a point thereofofnormal'working voltage to an electro-magnetically-operatedswitch-device which is normally closed, a connection from a point ofdifferent potential of the source of electrical energy to a normally;

open contact of said device, actuating de-'- vices, branch connectionsfrom the normallyclosed switch-device to independent electri-Cally-operated actuating devices, a notesheet to control the closure ofsaid branch connections todifferent potential points of the source ofelectrical energy and to said actuating devices in succession and to thenormally-open connection to the magnet of the switch-device to causesaid device to cause the closure of the connection to the point ofdifferent potential connection of the source of electrical energy.

JOHN F. KELLY. Witnesses:

VM. H. CHAPIN, I HARRY W. BOWEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Fommissioner of Patent.

Washington, D. C. v

